Wednesday, 12 October 2011

In the impressive surroundings of the Whitworth Hall in the University of Manchester, His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke delivered the 2011 De Lubac Memorial Lecture on Tuesday evening.

To an audience of 400 people, which included Bishop Brain as well as Bishop Davies of Shrewsbury, the Cardinal gave a majestic sweep of the Catholic teaching underpinning the "new evangelisation" called for by Blessed John Paul II in 1979 at Nowa Huta in Poland.

Our eyes need to be opened ever afresh, the Cardinal noted, to the need for holiness, which is itself nothing other than the mark of ordinary Christian living. The "inherent dynamism" of the Holy Spirit within each of us can enable a total transformation of minds and hearts. As a result we become conformed to Christ.

Unpacking the idea further, Cardinal Burke noted how the indifference to religion and the subsequent decline of Christian culture in Europe has had, and continues to have, a profoundly debilitating effect on Christian life. What is needed is "a more radical obedience to the word of God". The Church is fundamentally a missionary Church, and we have our part to play in the mission.

There is no programme or formula for this task; only a life lived in Jesus Christ, which implies the urgent call to holiness, will enable Christians to discover the extraordinary call to conversion within the ordinary things of life.

In the secularised environment of the 21st century, "no disciple can withhold making a response" to this crisis, said the Cardinal.

He made extensive use of the works of Blessed John Henry Newman, Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in his analysis of the current situation, and in proposing a solution.

Cardinal Burke focused on the need for Catholics to "reject a life of mediocrity" in the face of relativist, consequentialist and proportionalist views of thinking. The relativist says that we can act as we like since what is true for one person does not necessarily hold true for someone else. The relativist therefore denies a moral norm, a standard by which we can measure our behaviour. The consequentialist says that an action is right or wrong depending on the consequences that arise from it. The proportionalist says that we come to decisions about whether something is right or not based on a weighing-up of the supposed good or evil that might come out of an action.

These reduced visions of human behaviour are seriously detrimental to Catholic teaching and imperil the salvation of souls. The only solution is for us to take seriously the natural law, inscribed in the heart of every person. The natural law enables us to see what God is asking of us. Hence, for example, the natural law will hold that abortion, or contraception, or embryonic stem-cell research, is always wrong, whatever the perceived good coming from their implementation or use might be.

The spiritual ministrations of good priests and of consecrated people are vital in the Church, so that all people, young and old, might come to a knowledge and love of Christ.

The Cardinal invoked the protection of Our Lady of Walsingham on the local Church, since it is Mary who, at the foot of the Cross, teaches us how best we can be Christians.

Fr Ian Kelly organised the lecture with the help of students from the Universities in Manchester.

Henry de Lubac, S.J. was a French Jesuit and one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century.